O.C. housing: What does a half-million bucks buy?

Orange County's median home price has topped $500,000 for the first time in five years. So how much house can you get for half a million dollars?

That sum – or darn close to it -- paid for a 1916 Craftsman bungalow in Orange, an attached house with a garden and fountain in Irvine's University Park, and a Rancho Santa Margarita townhome boasting golf course and mountain views.

The county's $505,000 median price in March, reported this month by DataQuick, is the result of rising demand and limited inventory, as well as fewer distressed sales. We did find a foreclosure in our sample, though: A bank-owned Dana Point house with a mold problem, according to the listing.

The current median price, however, is still $140,000 below the June 2007 peak of $645,000.

Buyers don't go shopping for "a median priced home,'' but the monthly number is helpful because it represents the middle of the field and helps industry analysts and would-be buyers track housing market trends. Half of the homes sold were more expensive than the median, and half sold for less.

Here's a sampling of what the middle actually looks like. These properties went for half a million dollars, more or less, in Orange County in recent weeks.